It is conventional practice to embroider or silk screen designs, such as logos, on a wide variety of articles, such as soft-luggage type suitcases. The design can be used either for decoration, personal identification, commercial exploitation, or a combination of these functions. Articles which are seen commonly by many people can be used commercially to advertise or promote a commercial name, product or design. Suitcases accomplish this goal very well, since they are seen by many people in public while travelling.
Conventional suitcase structures include front and back panels which are integrally connected to each other by a side panel which extends along their peripheries. To apply a design on such a structure, the portion of the suitcase which is not being embroidered or silk screened often interferes with the design applying machinery and therefore slows the process or makes it impossible to apply the design.
With this in mind, the cost of embroidering or silk screening a commercial quantity of suitcases is higher than desirable because of the handling requirements of the suitcases during the design applying process. For instance, it may be necessary to hand embroider or silk screen the panels of the suitcase, since equipment having appropriate memory capabilities may not be able to accept the entire suitcase structure and perform its function properly. Alternately, the equipment may require manual placement, manipulation, and removal of the entire suitcase structure, thereby slowing down the embroidering process.
Although various methods exist for applying a design on a suitcase front panel, there is a need for a suitcase structure and method which provide the capability of enabling commercial quantities of design bearing suitcases to be manufactured in an economical manner.